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Final Fantasy X-2 North American Preview
Majestic Mog writes "FiringSquad somehow managed to score an advance copy of the English version of Final Fantasy X-2, the first REAL sequel in the long-running RPG series. They cover changes in the game over the first FFX, the English voice actors, and something about girls wearing short shorts." It looks like they took the best of FFX and combined it with the best of DoA Volleyball. In other words, this might be the perfect video game. I just wish it would come out before december since I just finished KotoR and need a new game.
Final Fantasy Fanservice. And was it REALLY necessary to make Rikku look like Christina Aguliera? They already modeled the girls to look like various J-pop idols, but geez... Of course, it's also funny that they're releasing this, when the US hasn't gotten the "updated" FFX with the expanded ending that sets up the sequel.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
Remember how Megaman came out in a million different versions, but once they got to x, they started doing x^2, etc.?
I still remember playing Final Fantasy (version 1)... but alas, I haven't played any of the other versions. I think I'll wait for FFX2.1.X3_40.
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There'd just be no way of making a sequel that would come close to living up to the original.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
Indeed, that was actually the only one I played all the way through, I even started going thru it a second time. Of course, one of the reasons I actually got to play that one is because it was out for the PC as well. Too bad they stopped doing PC ports of their games... I started playing FFVIII for the PC, but all the spells took forever to cast because of the long ass animations, which pretty much killed it for me.
I mean, PS2's dominance of the game market isn't necessarily a bad thing, but earlier FF games were interesting because they didn't railroad you along a story with the same sort of annoying intensity that FFX did. In FF7 you could spend hours (and usually did spend hours) at the Golden Saucer, and work on perfecting the Materia system. In FF8, you could just fly around and kill time, beating up on Cactuar in the desert, and actually playing a FUN card game before going to fight Ultimecia, along with plenty of other diversions like the again new and interesting spell system.
In FFX, you couldn't even freely fly around the map. The upgrade paths were just that--linear systems where you could make certain choices, but for the most part just followed where you were supposed to go. Blitzball was a joke. The card game was a pathetic afterthought. And the characters were straight out of a rejected Dawson's Creek episode. True, more people played it and more people thought it was so much better than any other FF...but how many of those were around for the earlier FFs?
I for one am ready to skip FFX-2 and go straight to FFXII which looks more promising...
Wow, a sequel! How innovative!
I have a feeling that this is all they'll ever do, just like everyone else. New ideas can fail, its safer to milk your last success.
Crystal Chronicles is more intriguing to me than this game, having not been so overwhelmingly impressed with FFX as everyone else. I didn't find it to be so much a game as a choose-your-own-adventure movie.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I personally have mixed feelings about the latest, FFX. It certainly has fantastic graphics, and I have really found myself getting into it at times. I have had a bunch of fun in many pieces, which I guess is the ultimate test for any game. But, I personally find some of the voices somewhat gag inducing or just jarring to the experience at points. I know people complain about too much angst or whatever, but personally I kind of like having my main character be a bit of a bad-ass, someone who at least at first isn't super interested in running out and saving the world, who has emotional conflicts and doesn't have an easy time dealing with it. In FF7, for instance, I liked Cloud's opening attitude, though I may be one of the few if FFX fans are to be believed. And I really _liked_ the first opening city, which is where the game starts right off (not really a spoiler to talk about it, but stop reading if you don't want some suspense taken out of your first 5 minutes of the game). It is really cool looking and well designed, and, well, if I lived in a place like that and it, and all my friends, was blown up, I would be really f@&^!ng pissed. Instead, we get a quick "oh well, it's all good." *Shrug*. Harder to get into the a character (ie, to role-play, to feel and empathize with) who sounds just like a California surfer stereotype, and I certainly found myself rolling my eyes or thinking 'stop being such a whiny loser and get fighting already,' during some of the drawn out dialog. Given these things are on DVDs, would it kill them to include the original japanese sound track as well?
It's actually not such a bad idea as long as the story is good...
I didn't really care for the characters in FFX. They were too cliche, standard, etc. I ended up not finishing the game because of them. IMO, Wakka was the closest thing to an original character, but still lacking.
Anyway, I guess I was saying that I wouldn't mind seeing sequels of FF installments that rocked.
If this were a novel and the author kept switching between different areas of the story, each time making you wish for more, then it would be a truly enjoyable. But instead, it just annoyed me. If you took the gameplay and stripped it of the cutscenes, the game would be played out and boring. If you took just the cutscenes the video would be breathtaking, but confusing and would encompass way too much continuous whining from the characters. Together it's a confused spastic mess. FFX2? Count me out.
(BTW if you absolutely loved the game, then good, you probably appretiated it in a way that I never can. Go ahead and counter me. I've had movies that I hated until someone pointed out the good points).
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...I wouldn't bank much on it being a very good game.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Not quite. Actually, of the PS FFs, I also liked FFVIII the most. FFVII's plot was too cliche for my tastes in many points. FFIX lacked a certain emotional tone during it's middle section that ir ended up being boring. FFVIII's plot and characters are always unfairly portrayed, at least in my eyes, as shallow or predictable. But, I always felt that there was a little more adult tones to the whole storyline. It was refreshing. Squall doesn't "grow" as a person, and people find fault with that, but does every main character have to "grow" for the game to be good?
The battle system, while eventually degenerate at points, was refreshing in its own way. The limit breaks were lots of fun to play with and added some additional feedback and actual play into the battles. The difficulty of many of the bosses throughout the game were excellently balanced such that most of them were close and enjoyable. The game could be beaten WITHOUT having to spend a lot of time levelling or working through the sidequests (most annoying aspect of FF7, really... the world's on the verge of being destroyed and you're spending your time breeding chocobos!!!). The plot was interesting and had some nice facets... and had some good twists (granted, some of them were expected, but others were a little unexpected).
Yes, it wasn't perfect, but I would contend as a full game package, it was more enjoyable than either VII or IX. FFIX is still a minor disappointment to me. It's not bad, per se, but just a little underwhelming. VII's late game was ludicrous and annoying... I love VII's early and mid-game... but after the mid-point of Disc 2, it started bothering me just how much extra I had to do to keep up with everything. VIII, even though it's battle system was flawed because it "forced" you to lengthen battles and have more encounters, was just a more enjoyable package than the other two.
Granted, I'll gladly pick up games in either three at any time... and ChronoCross, too... but I also liked VIII the most of the PS era. (FFVI, though, is still the overall favorite... but that's almost universally true.)
-Jellisky
the final in the name final fnatasy is becasue final fantasy (the original) was the final fantasy. around 1987 Square was about to go kaput after a bunch of crappy games on NES and this was their last shot last hope last idea.. their final fantasy. Funny how it turned out to ber one of the greatest games ever made
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